April 29, 1984: Phillies make six errors, lose game and series to Mets

The Philadelphia Phillies captured the 1983 National League pennant with hitting and pitching metrics above league average. The team’s major weakness was defense; it was tied for the third most errors in the NL. Despite a major turnover in personnel in the offseason, the 1984 Phillies team had some similarities with their 1983 counterparts. Both squads were near the top of the league in runs scored – and errors committed.

The teams were also linked by a Phillies franchise record. During the final six-week stretch of the 1983 season, Philadelphia won or tied 12 straight series on its way to winning the National League East Division by six games over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 1984 squad extended the successful run during the first three weeks of its season, and when the team journeyed to New York to face the Mets on Friday, April 27, the streak had reached 19.

The Phillies and Mets split the first two games of the weekend series, and Sunday’s rubber match drew 28,562 fans to Shea Stadium for Darryl Strawberry Day. The Mets celebrated Strawberry’s 1983 Rookie of the Year Award by handing out strawberry sundaes to the sun-soaked crowd. The 22-year-old right fielder was one of the Mets’ young stars creating excitement in New York after 1983’s last-place finish.

New York pitcher Walt Terrell was making his fifth start of the season. The 26-year-old right hander was acquired before the 1982 season, along with fellow righty Ron Darling, in a trade with the Texas Rangers for outfielder Lee Mazzilli.

Opposing Terrell on the mound was 41-year-old former Mets starter Jerry Koosman. A stalwart on the Mets staff for 12 years, Koosman was in his first year with the Phillies. Returning to the NL after pitching six seasons for the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox in the American League, he was facing his old team for the first time.

The Phillies’ lineup behind Koosman reflected more of the team’s 1983-84 personnel moves. Rookie leadoff hitter Juan Samuel had replaced Hall of Fame-bound Joe Morgan at second base. Instead of aging stars Pete Rose and Tony Pérez at first, it was Len Matuszek, who had spent most of the previous five seasons at Triple A before batting .286 with four home runs as a substitute during the 1983 stretch drive. Preseason trade acquisition Glenn Wilson, formerly of the Detroit Tigers, was in left field.

Samuel led off the top of the first with a single and scored on Matuszek’s double. With Mike Schmidt – coming off his sixth career home-run crown in 1983 – at the plate, however, Matuszek took off for third and was thrown out by Mets catcher Mike Fitzgerald. “Bleeping dumb,” said Phillies manager Paul Owens about the steal attempt by Matuszek, who stole just eight bases in nearly 400 major-league games. “It takes you out of the inning with your big hitter up.”1 Schmidt walked but was rubbed out on a double-play grounder.

The Mets tied the score in the bottom of the first. Ron Gardenhire stroked a leadoff single, moved to second on Keith Hernandez’s grounder and scored on George Foster’s base hit. The RBI was the 35-year-old left fielder’s 17th of the season. Strawberry followed with a single, but Mookie Wilson lined out to first to end the inning.

Neither team scored in the second, then in the third the Mets pushed across an unearned run. With one out José Oquendo bounced a routine grounder to the right side that Matuszek gloved. He raced to first and appeared to beat Oquendo to the bag, but umpire Dick Stello said Matuszek missed the base.2 Oquendo was ruled safe on the error.

Oquendo took second on Hernandez’s grounder and, with two outs, stole third with Foster batting. “That’s a bad play,” said Schmidt of Oquendo’s gamble.3 Ultimately it turned out to be a good play for the Mets because Koosman balked, allowing Oquendo to score the go-ahead run. “I really don’t know what happened,” said Koosman. “Just a lapse in concentration, I guess.”4

Philadelphia’s sloppy play continued in the fourth. Strawberry smacked a leadoff double and right fielder Joe Lefebvre’s bobble allowed Strawberry to reach third. Mookie Wilson’s single plated Strawberry and, with Hubie Brooks batting, Wilson took off for second. Koosman threw to first, and Matuszek’s throw toward second hit Wilson in the helmet and bounded into left field.

Glenn Wilson picked up the errant throw and tossed it to third, but no one was covering the bag. The ball caromed off the dugout wall toward Schmidt, who was manning the middle of the diamond. Schmidt scooped it up and threw home to nail Mookie Wilson for the final out.5 Both Matuszek and Glenn Wilson were charged with errors. The inning ended with the Mets on top 3-1.

In the fifth, the first two hitters in the Phillies’ lineup produced the team’s second run. Samuel singled with two outs, stole second and scored on Matuszek’s single. Schmidt stroked another single, but both runners were stranded when Lefebvre grounded to second.

Koosman allowed two baserunners in the bottom of the fifth but neither scored. With one out, Gardenhire bounced a grounder to shortstop that Iván de Jesús booted, the Phillies’ fourth error of the game. Oquendo flied to right, Hernandez singled and Foster was out on a fly to left.

Terrell retired the Phillies in the top of the sixth, then left for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the inning. Strawberry led off with a walk, delighting his fans by reaching base for the third time. “It was important for me to have a good day,” Strawberry said. “I felt confident I would.”6

Wilson struck out, Brooks’ grounder forced Strawberry at second, and Fitzgerald’s single advanced Brooks to third. Ross Jones was announced to hit for Terrell but Owens pulled Koosman and brought in righty Kevin Gross. Mets manager Davey Johnson countered with lefty-swinging Rusty Staub, who greeted Gross with a single to drive in Brooks with the fourth Mets run.

Doug Sisk was summoned to pitch the seventh for the Mets. Pinch-hitter Greg Gross walked but was erased when Samuel bounced into a double play. Matuszek doubled, his second two-bagger and third hit of the game, but Schmidt was retired on a fly to right.

Sisk returned for the eighth inning. After he tossed two straight balls to Lefebvre, Johnson brought in closer Jesse Orosco. “He didn’t have good stuff and he didn’t have his rhythm,” Johnson said of Sisk.7 Orosco inherited the two-ball count to Lefebvre and struck him out. Wilson walked, but pinch-hitter Garry Maddox flied out to left and Ozzie Virgil went down on strikes.

The Mets added single runs in the seventh and eighth, increasing their lead to 6-2. In the seventh Hernandez smashed a one-out homer off reliever Bill Campbell.

In the eighth, New York added its second unearned run, courtesy of two more Philadelphia miscues. Brooks pulled a one-out grounder to short that de Jesús mishandled. The error was his second of the game and the Phillies’ fifth. Brooks stole second and scored on Orosco’s bloop single to left. Wilson’s error allowed Orosco to advance to second. Gardenhire grounded out to third, ending the inning.

Orosco returned for the ninth and struck out de Jesús and pinch-hitter Luis Aguayo. Samuel stepped in, and the crowd rose to their feet and started screaming. “I heard them,” said Orosco.8 He struck out Samuel looking, completing the Mets’ victory. By virtue of their losing two of the three games, the Phillies’ streak of winning series was stopped at 19.

The six errors committed by the Phillies drew them into a tie with the San Francisco Giants for the most in the league. It was Philadelphia’s first six-error game since May 1966.9

Owens blasted his team’s performance after the game. “A horse-bleep exhibition. We played like a bunch of bleeping kids,” he said. “I hope this gets it out of our system.”10 Philadelphia ended the year in fourth place with an 81-81 record, scoring the second-most runs in the NL, but committing the third-most errors. Owens, who had built the Phillies’ 1980 World Series champions as general manager and stepped into the dugout in midseason to pilot the ’83 Phillies to the pennant, was fired as manager on the final day of the season.

The April 29 win vaulted New York past Philadelphia and into a tie with the Chicago Cubs for first place. Veteran first baseman Hernandez saw the potential in the young Mets team, saying after the game, “A winning atmosphere is starting to evolve here.”11 Ascending from 1983’s basement finish, New York finished second to the Cubs in 1984 and the St. Louis Cardinals 1985, then broke through in 1986 to become World Series champions.

Acknowledgments 

This article was fact-checked by Thomas J. Brown Jr. and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Keith Hernandez, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball Reference and Retrosheet for information including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198404290.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1984/B04290NYN1984.htm

Notes

1 Rich Hoffman, “Phils Shown Error of Ways,” Philadelphia Daily News, April 30, 1984: 92.

2 Hoffman.

3 Hoffman.

4 Hoffman.

5 Hoffman.

6 Hal Bock (Associated Press), “Phillies Leave Raspberries,” Pottsville (Pennsylvania) Republican, April 30, 1984: 11.

7 Jack Lang, “Mets Rip Phils 6-2, Share 1st,” New York Daily News, April 30, 1984: 42.

8 Joe Gergen, “Orosco Is Relieved Mets Passing Test,” New York Newsday, April 30, 1984: 90.

9 The Phillies committed six errors in a 6-1 loss to the Cubs on May 1, 1966.

10 Hoffman, “Phils Shown Error of Ways.”

11 Helene Elliott, Strawberry, “Mets Savor His Sunday,” New York Newsday (Long Island, New York), April 30, 1984: 90.